A lease file can look complete and still be missing something important. Some of the most consequential terms in a portfolio were never part of the formal document. They were agreed in an email, a short letter, or a side agreement.
These terms are often perfectly valid. They are also easy to lose.
Three Examples
These are illustrative examples, not client stories.
- An email waiving a CAM category for two years. The landlord's property manager agrees to it. Two years later, a new property manager sends the standard statement.
- A letter confirming a rent deferral. It is signed and filed in the real estate team's folder. Accounting never sees it.
- A side letter granting an early termination right. It comes up once in a negotiation and is then forgotten, until a decision about that location arrives.
Why They Disappear
These terms depend on the people who made the agreement. When a property manager changes on either side, or the person who negotiated it moves on, the agreement can leave with them. Even when the document survives, it may sit in an inbox rather than in the lease record.
If it changed the deal, it belongs in the lease file.
One Question That Helps
Ask the people who talk to landlords: was anything agreed this year outside a formal amendment?
It takes a few minutes, and the answers often point to documents worth recording.
Getting It Into the Record
- Collect it. Gather the email, letter, or note, with the date and the people involved.
- Confirm it. If there is any doubt, ask the landlord to confirm the term in writing.
- Record it. Add the term and its source to the lease record, with the dates it affects.
- Share it. Tell accounting when a term changes what is billed or paid.